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THE STREETS OF MONTREAL

Given the worn-out condition of my legs after a full day of sightseeing during my free day at Masters Swimming World Championships (and a rotten race time in my 400 IM the following day because of it), we decided to save most of the remainder of our sightseeing for after the completion of Worlds. We had already signed up for a walking tour after my morning race, though, so what the heck. You only live once, right?

Off we went to meet our guide for an afternoon walk through Old Montreal, the Old Port, and the underground city. It was a beautiful day for a walking tour, and we thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the sights along the way.

We were most fascinated by the underground tunnels that connect shopping malls, apartment buildings, condos, offices, museums, universities, seven Metro stations, two commuter train stations, a bus terminal, and the hockey arena. Whew! In all, these air conditioned and lit tunnels are spread over more than 12 km (4.6 square miles)! Many are so wide they have shops on both sides of the passage.

Colorful paint added life to this otherwise bleak hallway connecting the underground city to one of the Metro train stations.

Winters are so brutal in Montreal that 500,000 people use the underground city every day to escape the cold and snow. During our stay in Montreal, the weather was too gorgeous to spend much of our time down there.

Our last full day in Montreal was spent exploring the Mont Royal neighborhood and surrounding area. My camera got a lot of use that day, and our legs put on some miles! To see more photos of Montreal, visit: www.ExquisiteCards.fototime.com .

Unfortunately, the pictures don’t do it justice, because you can’t tell it’s an underground city! One of the photos just looks like a typical shopping mall, and the others don’t look like much of anything worth publishing! The photo of the vertical colored stripes is a hallway at one of the Metro stations. I will add a caption.

Parts of the underground city remind me of those long hallways at airports that connect the terminals. Combine those with a typical indoor shopping mall, and you get the picture!